Ipswich Town drop Championship ace as manager hints at unrest behind-the-scene

Ipswich Town head coach Kieran McKenna sanctioned a late loan move even though the receiving club sits just six points behind them in the battle for Premier League promotion.

The Tractor Boys have failed to win their last two Championship matches, yet still allowed an experienced second-tier striker to depart for a side positioned just outside the play-off places. Despite that recent wobble, Ipswich remain central to the pressure being applied on league leaders Coventry City.

Middlesbrough are now level on points with the Sky Blues, Hull City trail by four, and Ipswich themselves have already taken six points directly off Frank Lampard’s team.

Ipswich emphatically beat Coventry twice this season, scoring five goals without reply across those two league fixtures. With only the leaders having scored more goals in the Championship, the Suffolk club clearly felt comfortable reducing their attacking options during the January window.

Sammie Szmodics, now 30, has a strong track record at this level. His 27 league goals for Blackburn Rovers in 2023-24 convinced newly promoted Ipswich to bring him to Portman Road for their Premier League campaign. However, his involvement in the Championship this season has been limited and he has found the net just once.

That led to Ipswich approving a loan move to Derby County, managed by his former Rovers boss John Eustace. Derby sit seventh in the table, only six points adrift of Ipswich, and will host McKenna’s side at Pride Park on Saturday.

Speaking ahead of that meeting, McKenna addressed Szmodics’ situation, explaining that the decision went beyond on-pitch considerations.

“We’ll see what the summer brings,” McKenna said, via the East Anglian Daily Times. He pointed to two serious injuries suffered by the forward during 2025, both involving difficult recoveries, but stressed that form was not the decisive factor.

“Ultimately it wasn’t a football decision,” McKenna said. “It was about what was best for our group dynamic, our dressing-room culture and the values of the team.”

While acknowledging that loaning a player to a nearby rival could be viewed as risky, McKenna made it clear Ipswich believed the move was in their best interests. His comments suggested there may have been underlying issues away from the pitch.

“The decision was made that it was best that Sammie wouldn’t be with us for the rest of the season,” he added. “A permanent move was possible, but when that didn’t materialise it was still felt best for him not to be here.”

Ipswich travel to Derby for a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday, with Coventry and Hull playing later in the day and Middlesbrough not in action until Monday night. With a game in hand, it presents Ipswich with an opportunity to increase the pressure on the teams around them before their promotion rivals even kick off.